Hourglass
by Leemix
Summary: "Living beings all have something that makes them break. Be it small or large, sharp or flat, there's always one thing that will make the curtain fall and their feeble hearts shatter." - Munto runs, Yumemi chases, and the stage is a starry evening on our beloved planet Earth.


**Hourglass.**

" _Living beings all have something that makes them break. Be it small or large, sharp or flat, there's always one thing that will make the curtain fall and their feeble hearts shatter."_

A line of chewed pen lids and broken pencils framed the oaken desk. Scrunched up test papers littered the cream carpet. Books lay scattered across the bed and near the lamp beside her bed.

With a heaving sigh, Yumemi rested her head on the free space on her desk. She hadn't anticipated on spending _four_ hours on homework alone-and that was just for one subject! She groaned and covered her face, not wanting to see the other pile of books she had yet to open.

The first year of high-school for her had it's ups and downs. Being in a class with Ichiko and Suzume was the ups. _Homework,_ however, had become the bane of her life.

It would have made her laugh, truly. All the euphoric experiences she had endured over the years, and it was _homework_ that had made her the most exhausted.

"Yumemi."

Her eyes shot open wide when the breeze flung open her window. Goosebumps appeared from the cold whisper against her skin, and she sprung up from the seat and ran toward her window.

 _That voice . . . it could only have been-!_

Her vision was obscured by a tanned face and golden eyes, staring right at her. Her breath caught in her throat, and she dared not breathe.

"Munto?"

A smile quirked his lips. "Have you forgotten me already?"

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she ignored his playful teasing to jerk his overshirt forward, before wrapping her arms tightly around him. She was sure she didn't have the strength to pull him as easily as she did, but knew that he had an odd habit of wanting to be near her anyway.

"What took you so long to get here?" She mumbled, feeling Munto's ember-like warmth surround her body as he circled his arms around her. His body was slightly tense, lean-like the warriors and heroes she had read in her books, to escape to a world beyond the one she had once regarded as a curse to see.

"I had duties to attend, seeing to the refugees and expansions of the Kingdom, and . . . well," He chuckled. "Such talk is better saved for a later date. Forgive my lack of knowledge, but I am not often placed in situations like this." His hand stroked through her hair. She clung to the scent of wild breezes and morning dew, and when she looked up into his eyes, she saw little more than the evening sun caught aflame within them. "But I have missed you, my love."

"I-" The title _love_ was so foreign to her. Yumemi searched her mind for what to say in kind.

" _Why would you want to eat it? Montarou is a toy, so you can't eat it, Suzume . . .."_

Yumemi stifled a giggle at Chikara's drowsy rambling, and turned back to Munto. "I think we should talk somewhere else, so we don't wake him up. Do you want to go up to the rooftop?"

He held a hand out for her. "Wherever you want to go."

It was odd that it took a leap of physical faith for her, and a jump of emotional trust for him, for the two of them to be connected in this strange universe of theirs. How, despite being from a world above, she would always be higher, and he would be at his lowest point. As Munto held her in his arms and she slinked her arms around his neck, Yumemi found she wouldn't have it any other way.

As she stepped to on to the rooftop, barefoot and lightly clad, the wind gently fluttered through her long hair and nightclothes. Munto failed to let go of her hand for a moment, merely staring at her with a small smile on his face.

"Munto?" Yumemi waved her hand in front of his face. "Don't space out whilst flying: you could crash!"

A laugh left his lips as he sat down beside her. "Forgive me, Yumemi. I was transfixed."

"Transfixed?" She cocked her head to the side. "On what?"

He shook his head. "Never you mind. I shall tell you in the future."

Yumemi pouted. "Come on, tell me. What did you mean?"

"Hm?" Emotions painted a lazy smirk on his face, making Yumemi flush. "Are you that eager, Yumemi?" His voice became low, hushed, _husky._ "Do you want to know that badly?"

" _Munto_!" She buried her head in her hands as she felt the warm expanse grow to the tips of her ears.

Her embarrassment faded as the night air grew cooler, and the heat from her cheeks dispatched to warm the rest of her body. They spent the minutes in silence, with Munto tracing lines into Yumemi's hand with his finger. Yumemi closed her eyes and sighed softly,

The stars were endless. Even in Munto's world, their glistening had often been covered up by the clouds and ashes that the war brought upon his kingdom. It was sad to her. When he first saw the clear skies in her world, when he saw the stars without pressing matters at hand . . . it made her weep. For he was _silent_ as he stared up with those beautiful golden eyes of his _._ Munto always knew what to say.

"Why do you like the stars so much?" Yumemi surprised herself with her curiousity, but did not relent.

Munto clicked his tongue against his teeth. "I . . . could not answer. It is a mere matter of intrigue, I suppose you could say."

His pause made her frown. "Really?"

"You doubt me?"

"Not usually." She admitted. "But something about your reasoning doesn't add up. You sounded like you were looking for an excuse."

Her heart ached when he ripped his hand away from hers and settled it in his lap. "It's nothing for you to be concerned about," he said.

 _But I am,_ her heart screamed. _I'm worried about you, and you're shutting me out again, aren't you?_

"You once told me that your people, back in the ancient times, thought that the stars were what the Akuto left after taking the souls of the willing." Seeing the way Munto's back tensed almost made her waver. Almost. "Does that have something to do with it?"

"Don't be absurd." He shot up from his seating position and clenched his fists so tightly that his nails pierced the skin of his palm, and blood seeped underneath his fingernails.

"Munto-"

His posture became rigid as he marched away from her with hastened footsteps. Yumemi clambered over the roof tiles to give chase.

"Hold on a minute-Munto- _wait!"_ The tiles became loose underneath her feet, and her toes trembled for fear of slipping.

He didn't answer her. His retreating figure became little more than a pinprick of red in a sea of velvet.

 _Still,_ she reasoned as she scurried after him, clambering over each rooftop as steady as she could. _If he wanted to leave so badly, he could just fly away._

Without hesitation, she let go of the drainage pipe and landed on the window ledge, before leaping down into the street and making haste.

The ground _burned_ against her barefeet. Quick steps. Turning corners. She stumbled a few times and felt the grit scratch against her face.

She pressed a hand to her face and flinched. Inwardly, she sighed. _Suzume_ was the one that always fell. Not her. Yumemi was supposed to be the one who always looked down at her feet. Now she was looking up at a phantom of where Munto used to be.

She felt the air empty out of her lungs as they begged her mind for respite.

 _Not now. I need to reach him before I can catch my breath._

Navigating the streets at night was harder than she anticipated. Streetlights were a help, but avoiding the eyes of strangers was even harder. The warm glow from the houses was a sight she ignored, focusing instead on the rural areas.

She ran faster. _If I were a being from the sky,_ she thought to herself, _where would I go? Somewhere familiar?_

It took a few seconds and a sudden halt-by-skidding until her thoughts clicked in her mind.

"Of course," she whispered. "Of _course_ that's where he'd be."

Yumemi knew she didn't need to run anymore, but she did anyway. As if her feet were made of feathers and she could soar through the open night sky, her pace quickened. The girl didn't even stop when she saw the islands in the sky light up again.

She slowed down when she reached her destination. A small bridge. Tiny flowing river. A place where, for a moment, two worlds connected by one girl overcoming her fears, and a boy accepting his. She saved his future, and he unravelled her past. All in one moment; that beautiful, golden moment forever engraved in the history of two people, _worlds_ changed.

It was there, this time, she saw him again.

"Munto," she said. "I'm here."

He was perched on the railing like an etherical bird of fire, looking down at his reflection in the murky shallow waters. He didn't say a word to her. Yumemi knew he wouldn't.

But she didn't have to accept that.

"Do you remember when we first joined hands here?" Yumemi took a step forward and placed a hand over her heart. "You were barely alive, but you still trusted me. Trusted everything to a girl who could barely look up at the sky without wanting to burst into tears. Why was that, Munto?"

"I had something to lose." His voice surprised her, but she stayed rooted to the ground during his words. "I had no other choice."

"So why come here again, if it reminds you of your weakness?"

"It _doesn't._ "

Another step. "What does it remind you of, then?"

Munto sighed. Cold wisps caressed his cheeks. " _Everything else._ "

He was close enough for her to reach out and touch. Leagues away, in another time, she had been parallel to his silence. She was a fourteen year old girl again; alone, afraid, and confused of the visions of a past that wasn't hers, but echoed the same loneliness day after day.

They had seen each other's worlds through mirrors, through visions and through dreams. But what happened if reflections were allowed to touch each other? Would they experience the same emotions in a flux, or gradual? When Yumemi was around him, it was a bit of both, with something indescribable added on in the mixture.

"You can see the stars clearer here."

"I know."

Yumemi placed a hand to his shoulder. His clothes had grown cold. They were thin enough for her to feel his shoulders trembling through the material.

"Is there someone special up there that you miss?"

Munto scoffed. "What is with this sympathy? I never asked for it." He jerked away from her and she withdrew her hand. "Souls return to the Akuto. Legends like souls becoming stars are just to make children feel better after wars claim their parents."

The tremors from his shoulders shook the bones in his hands. Yumemi sighed.

"You're running away again, aren't you?"

His posture stiffened. "I do _not_ run-"

"Yes, you do!" Munto shrinked into his shoulders a little when she raised her voice. "You ran away before, when you needed me and you ignored me for over a _year._ You _still_ won't tell me why."

"It is none of your concern-"

She slammed her fist on the railing of the bridge until splinters came loose from the cracks. " _Enough."_

It took a few moments before she was able to calm her frantic heart.

"Munto." She began with a low tone. "It's my "concern" when it could have meant the deaths of all those I care about. But I'm not talking about that today. You can't tell me to trust you with my problems if you won't do the same."

Gently, she took Munto's hand in hers. He didn't pull away. "I won't force you to talk about these things with me, Munto. These are things you can't rush. But you can't put all this pressure on me. You told me that the one you should protect is already here, didn't you?" It was subtle, but he nodded. "I'm not a crown, or a throne, or a kingdom. I'm not a _thing_ to help you continue living. I'm a person that wants to help you."

She met his gaze. "Please, Munto. Let me _in_."

Yumemi wasn't sure when he had pressed his forehead into his shoulder, or when he had started to quietly sob. He refused to let her see him cry, but that didn't mean she couldn't _feel_ his sorrow, and he seemed not to have any qualms in sharing emotions. Visage wasn't always a key ingredient in empathy, after all.

"So," he had wiped his eyes roughly after that, and coughed out any hint of crying. "You . . . said that stars in this world, your people had names for them?"

Yumemi nodded. They were both sat on the bridge, with their legs dangling over the edge and their hands intertwined. "They chart them by constellations, based on what joined stars, or grouped ones, look like. Some read the future off of them."

Munto's eyes widened. "Your people can predict the future from the movement of the planet?"

She ran her free hand through her hair and laughed sheepishly. "It's a bit . . . fishy sometimes. But yeah, some people can. It's not as close as Lady Ryuley's visions, though. I'm not sure how they do it. They tend to put it in magazines though."

"Such abilities shouldn't be _sold._ " He grumbled. "It allows for the truth to be doubted in the future."

Her laugh vibrated through the air. "M-Munto, it's not predicting the course of a _planet!_ It's usually to show things like love, or money, or little things that bring people joy!"

". . . Oh."

His gradual learning of her world and it's customs, whilst earnest in effort, Yumemi couldn't help but find rather endearing, even _sweet_ at times. It was a thought that would most likely _mortify_ him if she ever shared it with him.

"So, what are those cluster of stars named?"

Her eyes searched. "That's called . . . well," Her hand guided his to connect the dots. "The English name for it is the belt of _Orion._ Some other lands have legends and myths about it and how it got to be there in the past, but our country used it as an agricultural symbol when farming was our primary trade." She leaned back against the railing. "I think that's what my Dad said, anyway."

"So you use even the stars to get by in daily life . . . here we thought we were the superior ones, but we relied only on Akuto to get by, instead of finding other ways. Humans truly are incredible." Munto looked down and smiled a little. "Here I've only seen a small portion. Of course, having you here proves the best in your people already."

She stared up at him.

"Yumemi?" He blinked. "Are you alright?"

"Sorry," she smiled bashfully. "You're just . . . I like it when you talk like that. Openly. Free. No court members or other Kingdoms to hold you back. It's . . ." She searched for the right word.

Only one came to mind. "It's beautiful, the way you speak. _You're_ beautiful, Munto."

A red flush swept across Munto's cheeks. "You-" He cleared his throat with a sharp and sudden sound. "Don't . . . don't be so absurd." He muttered. "That word is more applied to you."

She shook her head. "Maybe in your eyes, but you really are beautiful when you speak like that. It's," she bit her lip a little to prevent a squeal as he scratched underneath his chin. "One of the most beautiful sights _I've_ ever seen!"

He pursed his lips as his face went the colour of his hair. Munto couldn't even find the words to respond.

Yumemi poked his nose with the tip of her finger. "That's payback for making me embarrassed earlier, Munto."

He stared at her in disbelief. "You mean that was you-?"

"Not a lie, no. But I may have prolonged it enough to enjoy your flustered behaviour."

A smirk hooked his upper lip. "Was it, now?"

She met it with one of her own. "Mm-hm."

"Well, then." His grin drew more devious. "I suppose a comeuppance for you is in order now, correct?"

Yumemi folded her arms and closed her eyes. "I'm not sure how-" She felt her being lifted from the ground, and her eyes widened as she clung to Munto clothes. His grin hadn't faltered. "Munto, what are you doing- _Munto!_ Put me down!"

He drew in closer to the water's edge, and she squealed as he lowered her closer. "Down here, would you say is a good place?"

"No!" She laughed, "nowhere near here at all! Just let me go near the ground!"

"I cannot comply, I'm afraid." The wind captured the image of tousled beauty within his messy hair and wild eyes, and Yumemi found herself transfixed. "For now that I have hold of you in my arms, I will never be letting you go again, my love."

"Munto . . .." She sighed softly.

. . . Until she found herself clinging to him tightly again, near squealing. "Munto! Stop spinning me!" She laughed, "calm down! M-Muntooo _ooo!"_

In a perfect world, her words would have settled permanently into his psyche. He would never shut her out again, and they'd always be equals. There would be no disagreements, and all problems with their mental states would be ironed out like a creased shirt with a little heat.

It wasn't, though, but she didn't mind.

Opening that first door was a simple baby step. Considering their childhoods had been riddled with problems, that was fine with both of them. They had time to stumble and fall along the way.

The world owed them that much. _Both_ of them.

* * *

 **a/n: . . . Well, it's been a while since I've written for Munto. *Sweatdrops* Hopefully this is a good piece of return-material? Oh, and just in case anyone thinks Munto is being a little OOC . . . the boy ignored 'Memi for a year because he was scared of what _might_ happen to her, and still hadn't told her _why._ Being reminded of Papa and Mama through stars and not wanting to say why he was so emotional probably counts too. BOY HAS ANGSTY PROBLEMS OKAY. Anyway, please review!**


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